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Joshua Scheer Birthright Citizenship Survives—for Now. The Project to Redefine Who Belongs Continues. In a 5–4 decision issued on June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees U.S. citizenship to nearly all children born on American soil, regardless of whether their parents are in the country legally or only temporarily. The […]

Donald Trump claims to have a trick up his sleeve to upend birthright citizenship—though his plan to do so would most likely run afoul of the law.The president downplayed the Supreme Court decision Tuesday that killed his attempts to rewrite the Fourteenth Amendment, claiming that he and his allies could “easily make it up in Congress through Legislation.”“No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!” he wrote on Truth Social. “Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!”But that’s simply not true. Any attempt to change or alter birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment, since the right was enshrined in the Constitution in 1868 when Dred Scott was overturned and the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified.Accomplishing that would require a level of coordination and bipartisanship seemingly beyond the current Republican Party. A constitutional amendment requires a supermajority—two-thirds of both the House and Senate—to pass. Alternatively, the issue could technically be put to a constitutional convention, though two-thirds of states would need to support the motion to have one at all, and any proposed changes to an amendment would still require ratification by three-fourths of the states.The president was still embittered by the ruling hours after it was read at the bench, writing in a separate post that he “would like to congratulate President Xi, and the Great Country of China, on their massive Birthright Citizenship WIN.”In another post, Trump went on to claim that while the Supreme Court’s birthright ruling was a “loss” for his second-term agenda, he had actually won the “biggest and most consequential Decision” when the court extended him (by a 6-3 margin) sweeping new authorities over some two dozen agencies that were originally intended to be independent. That included granting him the ability to fire members of the Federal Trade Commission.

A huge amount of money flows into campaigns in the United States. For 20 years, the Supreme Court has been loosening rules for who can contribute and how much. It just loosened the rules again.

Look, I get it. Democrats have been burned by hopes for a Texas miracle so many times that it feels risky to place stock in this year’s Senate race. But a new poll of the contest from The New York Times finds a dead heat, with Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton each earning 47 percent of likely voters. In short: This is a real race. In Texas.Some have reacted with consternation to this poll, because previous ones had Talarico slightly up. This is, in my view, the wrong reaction. The Times poll is the gold standard—if this survey finds a tie, the race truly is a dead heat, meaning it’s actually winnable for Talarico. This was always going to be close. It will be very hard for Talarico to win. But it’s doable.Talarico’s candidacy is an object lesson in what happens when liberals speak forcefully on behalf of what they truly believe—and here the Times poll sheds some light. For instance: Majorities of Texas voters say Talarico has “good character” and “the right moral values,” whereas majorities don’t say that of Paxton. And more see Paxton as extreme (49 percent) than see Talarico (43 percent) that way.What should we make of this? Paxton and the entire GOP-MAGA apparatus are spending enormous sums of money to tar Talarico as unmasculine based on his previous positions on gender and religion. Talarico has walked back some of them. But, critically, he hasn’t done this fearfully and defensively. Instead, Talarico has characterized the criticism as ludicrously trivial, and has highlighted how absurd it is for Paxton—who has a long trail of corrupt and adulterous conduct—to criticize the manhood of others. His tone toward Paxton has been one of incredulity: This corrupt lowlife is claiming he’s a man’s man and a good Christian? This guy? Seriously? Meanwhile, Talarico has offered up a vision of masculinity that’s rooted in rectitude and integrity, in showing loyalty to neighbors (including immigrants—i.e., showing loyalty when it’s politically hard), in selflessly serving the community, and in protecting the vulnerable, all of it rooted in his own Christian faith.Along those lines, here’s another striking Times finding: Talarico is leading by 27 points, 58–31, among independents. That’s probably too rosy, but it’s instructive. The real GOP game plan is to smear Talarico as a vaguely alien (read: homosexual) figure who isn’t one of “us” Texans. Talarico’s response is to be forthright on what he really believes—to say what he means and mean what he says—while tarring Paxton as the person of truly low character. For now, it’s appealing to independents. The poll also finds Talarico winning 9 percent of Trump voters.It would be wildly premature to conclude from this poll that all this is working sufficiently to win Texas. Talarico will get bludgeoned by hundreds of millions of dollars in attack ads. And the poll shows Paxton holds a huge lead in areas of the state outside the big urban centers. Talarico is badly trailing among working-class whites, and he’s eight points behind among all working-class voters.Still, there’s cause for optimism here. To win, Talarico needs some Trump voters and a lot of independents. He’s on track to do that, though he’ll have to win more working- class voters and cut into Paxton’s non-metro margins. While the Democratic brand is tarnished here (53 percent say the party is too far left), Talarico is mostly escaping that.Winning in Texas also requires running up huge totals in the Latino-heavy border counties—and here the poll delivers another surprise. Talarico is trouncing Paxton among Latinos by 61–29, or 32 points. This is a big deal. Trump’s success at winning Texas Latinos fueled all the post-2024 talk of a major realignment. But those gains have evaporated, even in Texas.What happened? Well, Trump’s mass deportations, for starters. Texas voters approve of Trump on immigration by a bare 50–49: not great for this deep-red border state. But Latinos disapprove by an extraordinary 64–33, with 60 percent disapproving strongly. That’s remarkable—it helps explain how Trump squandered those Latino gains.Trump is hovering over all of this. The Times poll finds his overall approval underwater at 44–52. He’s faring worse on the economy (43–55), the cost of living (39–60), and the war (41–57). Those numbers are quite bad for Texas. And it gives Talarico an opening in another sense.As I argued last month, Talarico and a number of other Democrats are developing a new moral language for the era of “late-stage Trumpism.” The broad idea of a new politics is gaining traction: E.J. Dionne and Jennifer Szalai both have good pieces detailing how Democrats are embracing a newly moralized politics. They’re talking about the common good, depicting corruption as a moral scourge, and casting both liberalism and democracy as ways of life rooted in ethical public conduct, in mutual respect among differing citizens.Yet one central ingredient to this should be an indictment of the moral and spiritual rot that MAGA has inflicted on our common life. This can coexist with good-faith outreach to Republicans and even some Trump voters. Here’s where late-stage Trumpism comes in. All that’s left is the corruption, the self-enrichment, the naked cruelty, the ethnonationalism, the upward transfer of oligarchic wealth, and the stoking of petty enmities as political blood sport. I don’t know how directly Talarico can criticize Trump by name—a majority says Talarico will “oppose Trump too much.” But he’s facing a candidate who perfectly exemplifies the very worst of MAGA, and most people just want to get past MAGA’s nonstop degradations already. Talarico needs to speak to that MAGA fatigue without appearing too partisan. It’s a tall order: Winning in Texas will be hard. But even if he comes close, it’ll suggest that a new politics is emerging from all the wreckage.

Justices ruled 6-3 in favor of Big Business and the GOP to eliminate longstanding campaign finance limits.

Republican Representative Thomas Kean Jr. was back at work Tuesday, and explained why he went missing in March without actually offering much of explanation.In a speech on the House floor, Kean said that he was hospitalized on doctor’s orders for depression. He noted that it was a “difficult speech” for him to make as he is a private person and talking about himself doesn’t come naturally, but said that “I believe I owe an explanation to the people of New Jersey’s 7th district, my colleagues in this chamber, and to the American people for my actions.”Kean said that months ago, he underwent medical testing at a hospital and was diagnosed with depression. While Kean didn’t believe he would need a long-term hospital stay, he said he was advised to remain put by doctors. Early on, he didn’t understand his condition, he added.Rep. Tom Kean says his absence from the House was due to depression pic.twitter.com/AbQRdc4d88— Acyn (@Acyn) June 30, 2026“It is physical. It is emotional. And until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be,” Kean said. He said he was hesitant to accept his doctors’ advice that a long-term stay would be the fastest way to recovery, given his obligations to his family, colleagues, and constituents. “But, as the over 48 million of my fellow Americans being treated for this illness have come to discover, there is no timeline for healing. There is no timeline for recovery. Only the work of getting better, one day at a time,” Kean said. It was a heartfelt speech, but the New Jersey congressman failed to explain why his social media accounts continued to post regularly and his office still introduced legislation while he was missing. Kean’s financial disclosures showed that he was also trading stocks in April while he was ostensibly in the hospital, and his reelection campaign racked up travel expenses showing him using Uber and Amtrak in San Francisco, far from his constituents, in that same month. If Kean’s depression was so severe that he needed hospitalization, how does he explain personally trading stocks and racking up travel expenses on the other side of the country? Kean also missed several important votes in Congress, including on the budget. He’s not in a safe Republican district, either: Donald Trump carried it by just one percentage point in 2024, and Democratic Governor Mikie Sherrill won it by two last November.Kean is not the first member of Congress to deal with depression: Former Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. was treated at the Mayo Clinic for bipolar depression in 2012 and later resigned that year, and former Representative Patrick Kennedy dealt with depression throughout his congressional career, receiving in-patient treatment in 2006 and 2009 and deciding not to run for reelection in 2010. While Kean won his primary unopposed, he faces Democrat and former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett in November’s general election. Kean may not be able to escape scrutiny for his lack of transparency over the last few months.